SESSIONS NEW CRIMINAL CHARGING POLICY: REVERSAL ON OBAMA ERA, WAR ON DRUGS

AP: “Attorney General Jeff Sessions is directing federal prosecutors to pursue the most serious charges possible against the vast majority of suspects, a reversal of Obama-era policies that is sure to send more people to prison and for much longer terms.
The move amounts to an unmistakable undoing of Obama administration criminal justice policies that aimed to ease overcrowding in federal prisons and contributed to a national rethinking of how drug criminals were prosecuted and sentenced. Critics said the change will subject more lower-level offenders to unfairly harsh mandatory minimum sentences.”

Sessions speaking about about violence related to increased opioid use: “Drug trafficking is an inherently violent business. If you want to collect a drug debt you can’t and don’t file a lawsuit in court. You collect it by the barrel of a gun.”

AP notes the requirement to provide the judges with all of the information at sentencing could lengthen prison terms.